EPOCH OF MOUND-BURIALS.
We have seen (p. 42) that during the Paleolithic Period man appears to have paid no honors whatever to the dead; and that in the Neolithic Period he collected the bodies or bones of the departed and deposited them in rude but massive sarcophagi at the cost of what must have been to him excessive toil. During the Bronze Age the huge stone tombs disappeared and were succeeded by mounds. The cremation of corpses prevailed, though in some grave-mounds skeletons are found buried by the side of the cremated dead.
The monuments consisted either of bare heaps of earth (pl. 3, fig-. 9) or of mounds surrounded by stones (fig. io). Both kinds are found in most countries of Europe, as also in those of Asia. Urns and metal utensils are found buried with the dead. The corpse lies either on the natural surface or is interred in the ground—merely covered with sand or fenced in with stones. A layer of stone (figs. II, 12) is usually found at some height above the bodies, and sometimes this layer is formed into a complete stone chest (fig. 13), out of which regular vaults, and finally sarcophagi, were developed. In Scandinavia and Jutland some of the vaults were made of wood. Urns containing the ashes of the dead are usually preserved in these different graves, but the ashes were not always gathered into vessels. The dampness of the soil may have caused corpses or urns to be interred above the surface, as is shown in Figures 7 and 14. In an urn mound near Uelzen a terrace-shaped arrangement was found (fig. 15). Figure S represents the section of a mound opened near
Schwalm in In it was found a paved vault containing a recumbent skeleton, with pieces of a broken bronze sword at its side. In a recess beneath the pavement there were eight skeletons in squatting posture, and another skeleton, apparently of a female. These latter were probably slaves who had been sacrificed at their master's grave. To this day the mound is called the Herrberg. The urn in its upper layer of earth was deposited later, and evidently belongs to another interment.
Subterranean interment (fig. 16) prevailed also during the Iron Age, which in this respect is not sharply divided from the Bronze Age. Mounds were not the only honors bestowed on the dead; sacrifices especially were offered, though they did not always involve human lives.
Sacrifices of this nature, and also the custom of burning the bodies of the dead, continued to prevail down to the times of the early German emperors, who forbade them. The custom of burial-gifts was retained for a long time, and they are found in late stone and wooden coffins (figs. 17, TS). The wooden coffins were generally hollowed trunks of trees, the so-called " trees of the dead." Figure 19 shows one from an Alemannic graveyard near Oberflacht in Swabia. We may here remark that far into the Middle Ages wooden coffins were used only by wealthy people; others were buried simply wrapped in linen.